Pandora
Pandora is a planet located on the outer rim of the Milkyway and the Hades Nexus. It is a barren, desolate world filled with dangerous creatures. Pandora's habitable regions derive sunlight indirectly from the reflection of its moon Elpis. Pandora has a 90-hour day and takes ten Earth years to orbit its sun (one winter is seven earth years and a summer is three earth years). Pandora was first settled by none-native species during a winter season, when much of its wildlife was hibernating. After seven earth years, the warming climate in that region resulted in most of the known native wildlife waking from their hibernation, all of which are hostile to Pandora's new settlers. Pandora was once a very beautiful planet, but due to Exon and various companies tripping it of its resources, most of the planet is in ruins. History Post Colonization Prior to the arrival of outside species, Pandora was a beautiful (albeit dangerous) planet with an abundance of natural resources such as precious ores, minerals and oils. Exon Arrival Pandora was one of the planets to be harvested by the newly forming Exon military. Exon arrived during one of Pandora's long winters and stayed for 4 years before moving on. In that time they managed to mine most of the planets resources, leaving it ravaged as well as leaving their tiberium ran factories and mining equipment across the planet. Corporation Arrival Not long after Exon's departure from the planet, it was soon set upon by several different corporations, one of which being Ultratech. For 3 years they too drained Pandora of its natural resources and polluted it. However when summer arrived and the wildlife of the planet began waking up from hibernation, they soon began attacking the new settlers on the planet. This mixed with the now dwindling resources caused the companies to leave the planet, along with their workers who were now stranded on the hostile planet. Factory Malfunctions After years of not being maintained, the reactors left by Exon finally gave in and exploded. This chain of devastating explosions ravaged a large portion of the planet, and causing a large amount of radiation to sweep the landscape. Planetary Features Fauna The major forms of fauna on Pandora aggressively protect their territory; an approach is usually met with immediate attack. Pandora has many different creatures that are seldom friendly towards any other species. Some of these creatures include. *'Skags' - Skags are large, dog-like creatures, easily identified by their strong bony armour plates, aggressive behaviour, and distinctive three-jawed mouths. Despite the ferocious appearance of their mouths, skags do not have teeth. Instead, a series of barbs extends from the end of their lower jaw and along both edges of their upper jaws. This means that skags ingest prey in the same manner as alligators on Earth - by ripping apart the flesh rather than biting it in chunks. Despite their feral attitudes, skags can be domesticated, at least partially. bl-skag.jpg *'Spiderant' - Spiderants are viciously territorial creatures that bear a passing resemblance to insects. The most striking features of these creatures are their elongated heads, four limbs, and abdomens. Their heads are thickly armoured as are their strong, dangerously sharp forelimbs. Spiderants are known to burrow underground and tend to frequent areas with relatively flat, open ground. Tumblr static e02cuiytecgk88ocswosw8k40.png *'Rakk' - Rakk are flying creatures native to Pandora. They do not have beaks. Instead, they have a flat, fleshy head ending with a pointed snout, with a brightly coloured, bony plate on the top, and hooked, rasping barbs lining a soft, slit-like mouth on the bottom. Rakk do not have grasping claws or lower limbs, and instead have a set of curved, razor-sharp talons upon a flexible tail that they use to adhere to rocky surfaces. Rakk appear to be highly social creatures with a task-based hierarchy that includes scouts, hive defenders, food processing, and perhaps even long-term food storage not unlike honeypot ants on Earth. They are known to be vocal, howling or screeching to rally a flock when a target presents itself or proves itself to be a threat. Bl-rakk.jpg *'Rakk Hive' - The Rakk Hive is a gigantic alien quadruped with four pearl-like eyes and multiple holes spread across its back. These holes are home to flights of rakk, which themselves will swarm to attack anything that gets near the Hive. The hibernation cycle of a Rakk Hive is noticeably longer than that of the other species on Pandora. Their backs an often be seen protruding from the ground across Pandora, they will not wake even if attacked, instead rakks will swarm out of it. Bl-rakk-hive.jpg *'Threshers' - Threshers stubborn, tentacled creatures that tend to live in soft ground, especially along ocean shores or river beds. Threshers are long-bodied with a large, bulbous head perched upon an octopus-like body with several long, spindly tentacles sprouting from just below the head. Threshers vary in size from several feet long to fifty or more. 123326sfn2leglmlnnmgau.jpg *'Bullymong' - The Bullymong is a four-armed, ape-like creature found on Pandora. It can climb tall structures with ease, and is capable of leaping great distances. The arms of a bullymong are the primary limbs for locomotion while the legs are barely more than vestigial appendages that bullymongs stand with, but tuck up under themselves when they walk. The power of their arms is so great that the largest bullymongs can hurl objects up to the size of a car. Bullymong by drysockett-d5yez47.png *'Stalker' - Stalkers are known as one of the most deadliest hunters on Pandora and rarely seen by locals. It has the unique ability to vanish from sight. This ability is possible due to a special organ all stalkers have known as the Sach's Organ. This organ stores an electrical charge and is located within its vestigial wings. While hunting or hiding, a stalker's Sach's Organ generates an electrical field which allows it to blend into the environment. When a stalker runs out of electrical energy, the electrical field dissipates. To regenerate an electrical charge a stalker converts sunlight using the solar plates lining its back. Bl2-stalker.jpg *'Deathclaws' - Deathclaws are a large, agile, reptilian species that have a hunchbacked, bipedal reptilian build with long humanoid arms. They stand roughly nine to ten feet tall, with a thick and resilient hide, powerful muscles, and twelve-inch-long, razor-sharp claws that can kill almost any other creature in only a few swipes; hence their name. Deathclaws, however, are not natural to Pandora, and were instead introduced in the last 20 years when several specimens escaped from an Ultratech facility on the planet. In reality, Deathclaws were engineered by Ultratech to replace human troops in battle, deathclaws were derived from mixed animal stock, primarily from the Jackson Chameleon. They have an excellent sense of smell and hearing, though their eyesight is poor. Their build gives them incredible speed, agility and strength in close combat, making them an extreme threat. Though they were originally mutated chameleons, most have lost the ability to camouflage themselves. Deathclaws are very aggressive, territorial, and carnivorous (very befitting of Pandora). They typically live in small packs of around eight to twenty members led by an alpha male, who is the only one allowed to mate with the females. Deathclaws are oviparous, with the eggs typically laid in dark, sheltered locations and fiercely guarded by their mother. 999.jpg There are many undiscovered species on Pandora as well. Though in all likely hood, new species have probably already been found, but the ones that discovered it were probably killed by said creature. Which is par for the course on Pandora. Flora There are a variety of plants on Pandora, although the local flora is sparse in many areas. The majority of the vegetation present is similar in appearance to flora found in the south-western United States on Earth. One of the most common plants or plant-analogues resembles cacti called cesium cactus with orange glowing 'eyes' found throughout the desert-like environment of the Badlands and beyond. Other types of flora include mushrooms, moss, lillypads, sunflower-style plants that grow 3 heads, wild grasses and flowers that will bloom in large patches. Some plants, much like the beasts of the planet, are dangerous. A planet called the Firemelon is a prime example, as they explode when disturbed, setting everything around them on fire. Geography The areas in Pandora vary from snowy or volcanic-ash-strewn mountainous areas, large desert valleys and coastal stretches. The terrain is criss-crossed with canyons, ravines, rocky outcrops and plateaus. Large bodies of water are also present bordering several of the zones. A large section of the planet however is a an almost baron radioactive wasteland, due to several mining facilities blowing up in the past due to reactor malfunctions. Residents The residents of Pandora can be split into three groups. *'Jawas' - Jawas are the natives of Pandora, that lived on the planet for years before Exon's arrival. Originally very primitive, Jawas adopted a compulsive scavenging culture thanks out off-world settlers when they realised that they would be rewarded for bringing scavenged items to them. They spend most of their lives devoted to scavenging the hostile lands of Pandora in search of any scrap metal, droid or mechanical part left behind by off-world companies and militaries as well as any visitors to the planet. They travel the lands in large vehicles known as sandcrawlers, which are repurposed mining vehicles. They have a reputation for swindling, as they have a penchant for selling old equipment such as outdated faulty equipment to settlers. However, they are extremely passive beings, and hardly put up any resistance to colonists of their planet, instead seeing foreigners as an excellent business opportunity. Jawas are easily identifiable by their traditional brown hooded robes. ther notable features included their glowing yellow eyes, small stature and high pitched, quickly spoken language called Jawaese. JawaEngineer-SWGTCGAoD.jpg|Jawas working to salvage a crashed X-34 landspeeder. *'Settlers' - Settlers, normally consisting of humans, sangheili and kig-yar, and somewhat peaceful colonies who live on Pandora. Though normally, most settlers are workers or descendants of workers who were left stranded on Pandora by the companies they worked for. Settlers first arrived on Pandora during its peaceful winter years, however when summer rolled around the colonists were set upon by the wildlife. A lot of settlers on Pandora tend to go the route of Pandora's wildlife, turning hostile on each other and forming raider gangs and attacking settlements. Yet another reason why Pandora is one of the most dangerous planets in the galaxy. Bl2-marauder.jpg|A raider marauder. Bl2-nomad.jpg|A raider nomad. *'Super Mutants' - Super Mutants are mutated humans, products of infection by an experimental virus created by Ultratech known as the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV). They are much taller, standing around 10.4 feet tall (although they typically stand with hunched backs that reduce them to about 7.8 feet), bulkier and muscular than pure strain humans, have (mostly) green, grey, or yellowish skin, are immune to disease and radiation, and are gifted with superhuman strength and endurance. Although they are completely sterile, the rapid regeneration of their cells caused by FEV makes them virtually biologically immortal (but not immune to death from injury). It is generally unknown how Super Mutants came to be, though most people assume they are just a natural species created by radiation. In reality they are humans that were exposed to FEV while searching an abandoned Ultratech building. Super Mutants are extremely hostile to anything they come into contact with and will typically kill and sometimes even eat whatever it is. Super Mutants tend to mostly operate in the more irradiated areas of Pandora, though gangs of them will sometimes venture out across Pandora in search of "pure" humans with no radiation to turn into more Super Mutants. SuperMutantCA7.jpg SM behemoth CA2.jpg Super mutant master CA2.jpg Settlements Settlements on Pandora and normally far and few between, though they are normally generally shanty towns made from scrap metal and wood. The few rare exceptions to this are repurposed military bases and Jawa camps. The majority of settlements are generally located on the unirradiated areas of the planet. Junktown Necropolis Mos Eisley The Hub The Pit Category:Planet Category:Location Category:Neutral Category:Exon